Inclusive Excellence

The President’s Initiative on Inclusive Excellence provides a framework for the university’s commitment to becoming a more inclusive campus, promoting an environment where all members of the UTSA community can engage, learn and thrive.

Inclusive Excellence Advisory Board (IEAB)

Initiative Lead:

Myron Anderson, Vice President for Inclusive Excellence

Co-Chairs:

Carolyn Ellis, Assistant Dean, UTSA Libraries

Norma Guerra, Associate Dean, College of Education and Human Development

The Inclusive Excellence Advisory Board will proactively and systemically address strategic issues of critical importance to develop and maintain a welcoming and inclusive campus at UTSA. The IEAB will use nationally recognized best practices as a foundation for their work, shaping priorities based on feedback from broad, representative segments of the UTSA community. The IEAB will create additional committees, councils, and task forces to advance specific aspects of inclusive excellence as needed.

Cultural Intelligence Committee

Chair: Kelly Nash, Associate Professor of Physics

The Cultural Intelligence Committee will work to sustain, increase and unify the cultural intelligence of the UTSA community. This committee will develop platforms for all UTSA faculty, staff and students to acquire additional knowledge and tools to engage more inclusively with those throughout the campus community. These may include new learning communities, trainings, workshops, seminars and campus resources. Initially, this committee will work on a implementing an online professional development training on diversity, inclusion and managing bias.

Committee membership to be determined

Campus Climate Committee

Chair: Roger Enriquez, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice

The Campus Climate Committee will assess UTSA’s overall campus climate through data collection and monitoring activities. The initial project of this committee will be to develop and implement a comprehensive campus climate survey at UTSA. Information gathered through the survey will inform UTSA’s senior leadership on progress toward furthering the university’s inclusivity and workplace satisfaction goals. This committee will work in tandem with UTSA’s existing Campus Climate Team, which is charged with monitoring and facilitating the reporting of bias incidents on campus.

Committee membership to be determined

Inclusive Recruitment Committee

Chair: JoAnn Browning, Dean of the College of Engineering

The Inclusive Recruitment Committee will develop and recommend strategies designed to increase the recruitment of diverse faculty and staff. Initially this committee will review and assess current recruitment programs, developing and implement new programs and activities as needed to advance UTSA’s inclusiveness goals. This group will also provide guidance regarding search and screening processes in order to increase the inclusivity of applicant pools. On the faculty side, this committee will work in tandem with the Provost’s Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative, specifically the Advancing Academic Excellence through Accelerating Faculty Diversity Hiring Program (FDP). On the staff side, they will work with Vice President for Business Affairs Veronica Mendez to coordinate efforts through Human Resources.

Committee membership to be determined

Inclusivity Statement Task Force

Initiative Lead:

Roger Enriquez, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice

Members:

Carolyn Ellis, Assistant Dean, UTSA Libraries

Norma Guerra, Associate Dean, College of Education and Human Development

John Phillip Santos, Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Honors College

This task force will review the draft diversity statement developed by the past Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board (DIAC), infuse the philosophies of Inclusive Excellence and finalize an inclusivity statement that aligns with the mission of UTSA. This statement will be presented to the Inclusive Excellence Advisory Board (IEAB) for review, ratification and recommendation to senior leadership to serve as the inclusivity statement for UTSA.